


Brilliant bastards and multicoloured messes

by xyzan21



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Brotherly Love, Established Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, F/M, Fluff, Good Peter Pettigrew, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Mastermind Remus Lupin, Minor James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Protective Sirius Black, Regulus Black Deserves Better, Regulus Black Lives, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:28:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24405031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xyzan21/pseuds/xyzan21
Summary: Regulus doesn’t want to join Voldemort and goes to the only person that can help him, the only person that he trusts. His brother.Chaos and brotherly love ensue.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marauders & Lily Evans Potter, Marauders & Minerva McGonagall, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 12
Kudos: 198





	Brilliant bastards and multicoloured messes

Sirius was rudely awakened by the curtains of his bed being flung open. He blinked groggily and noticed how light it was outside. It was the weekend which usually meant he liked to sleep in. It was very rare that anyone woke him up before he decided to rise. He _wasn’t_ a morning person.

He felt breathing against his collarbone and blinked in confusion. Then he looked down and noticed it was Regulus. His head was tucked under Sirius’ chin, his hands held the material of his shirt tightly. Sirius in turn had one arm slung around his torso and his other hand held the back of his brother’s head.

“Mr Black,” a strict voice cut through his foggy mind. “Wake up. I need to ask you some questions.”

Sirius slowly untangled himself from Regulus. He sat up. His back had been to the voice and he was blocking Regulus from sight. McGonagall was standing in his dorm room in all her glory.

“Minnie?” he asked confused. Around him his fellow Marauders looked a little frantic. “What’s going on?”

“Mr Black, we have received news that your brother wasn’t in his dormitory last night and he hasn’t returned yet. Nobody has seen him since dinner. We are searching for him but as you are his brother, we thought maybe you had an idea where he could have disappeared to.”

He stared at her uncomprehendingly for a few seconds. They thought Reggie was missing? This school really was crap at keeping tabs on the whereabouts of their students. He turned back to his peacefully sleeping brother and nudged him gently. He didn’t want to wake him especially since he so clearly needed rest but they needed to deal with this now.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Reggie, you need to wake up now.”

Regulus stirred, he let out a little disgruntled sound.

Sirius nudged him again. “I know but they think you went missing. They’re looking for you and everything.”

This seemed to wake Regulus up immediately. “They’re looking for me?” he sounded panicked.

There were surprised sounds from the other occupants of the room but Sirius payed them no mind. He had more important things to do, namely calming down his panicking baby brother. He slowly raised his hand and moved to touch Regulus’ cheek. Neither of the Black brothers reacted well to unexpected physical contact, especially when they were already panicking.

“Hey, hey Reggie. It’ll be alright. No need to panic. Nothing’s going to happen to you here. You’re safe.”

Reggie’s hands were clenched in the bedding. “Sirius,” his voice was small and so full of fear. “What if they find out? They are already displeased with me. This will be the tipping point. I can’t be seen talking to you. They disowned you. I’m forbidden to as much as think of you in passing.” Regulus was hyperventilating at this point. 

Sirius started humming, it was something he had done when Regulus had been scared or overwhelmed when they were kids. The sound always seemed to distract him. It gave him something to focus on. It had been a game. Every time it had been a different song and Reggie would calm down while he concentrated on identifying the tune. 

Reggie calmed down marginally. “I… I don’t know that song.”

Sirius shrugged awkwardly and sent him a rueful smile: “It’s a Muggle song by a group called the Bee Gees, called ‘Stayin' Alive’. It was the first song that popped into my head. I’ll play the song for you later if you want.”

Regulus made a small amused sound: “Only you. Always so improper.” He didn’t sound like he minded. 

McGonagall cleared her throat: “What is going on here? Do you know that there is a school wide search for you Mr Black?”

Regulus’ breathing picked up again. Sirius sent McGonagall an imploring look. “I’ll explain later.” Then he grabbed his wand and put up some silencing charms. He knew he wouldn’t be able to calm Regulus down if all the others were listening.

“Reg, you know I love you right? And that I will do anything to protect you. I won’t force you to talk but I would like to know what happened. I want to know how best to protect you.”

Regulus bit his lower lip nervously and stared up at him with big worried eyes. He looked so young. He hadn’t been able to get much out of his brother so far. He had been more concerned with not letting him out of his sight instead of pestering him with questions. 

  


Sirius had been walking around the castle late last night, returning from the kitchens. He had been yanked into a supply closet. His wand had been out and pointed at his assailant in an instant.

Before he could process the fact that he was staring at his brother’s face, which he hadn’t seen up close since the night he fled to the Potter’s, his brother started pleading.

“Please. Help me, Sirius. I can’t stay there any longer. I don’t want to die and that’s what’s going to happen if I stay in that house.” 

“Are you ok?” he had asked his brother. Regulus had looked scared, he had a haunted, frenzied look in his eyes.

Regulus slowly shook his head. Sirius’ protective instincts kicked in. He had always protected Regulus. He had taken the brunt of their parents’ violence and sent Regulus away so that he didn’t have to witness it.

“What did they do to you?” he asked in a desperate whisper. He needed to know how to help his brother. Regulus didn’t answer.

“Reggie, please, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

A pause, then: “I’m so scared, Sirius.” His voice sounded horse and unused, Sirius wondered when the last time was his brother had spoken.

He hadn’t taken much convincing. He knew what that place looked like and Regulus had never been able to lie to him. This wasn’t a trick. His brother needed his help and like hell was Sirius going to abandon him when he had a chance to save him.

He had dragged his brother to his dorm and deposited him in Sirius’ bed after lending him some pyjamas. Just like when they were little and Regulus had been scared. Regulus may be a sixth year now but he was still Sirius’ baby brother. And he intended to protect him, no matter what.

He still couldn’t get the terrified look on his brothers face out of his head when he had practically begged for help, when he had feared rejection by the last person he had left. He intended to never see that look again. Regulus would be safe and would never have to fear death or torture again.

  


“Why are you scared Reggie? What did they do?” he tried now.

“They… they want me to join him,” he trailed off for a moment. He seemed to be building up the courage to continue. “The… You-know-who. They want me to join him. I’ve seen him. He’s awful. He hasn’t noticed me yet. I was always in the back ground but he’s terrifying and cruel. And I’m scared Sirius. I don’t want to join him. I’ve been putting it off, meeting him, for as long as possible but our parents are getting impatient. I don’t know how long I can postpone it. I don’t know what to do and you’re the only person I think I can trust. I’m so scared Sirius. I don’t want to be bad. I don’t want to kill or torture or I don’t know what else. Please. Help me.” The last words were even more desperate and frantic then the entire speech had been.

Sirius couldn’t remember when the last time was that he had heard his brother talk so much in one go. Probably when they were younger and Regulus had been trying to distract him from the aftereffects of a confrontation with their parents.

“I won’t let you go back to that house. You won’t have to join that monster. Our parent’s will never touch you again.”

“But where will I go?”

“Well you could stay with me at the Potter’s. They won’t mind. They are such kind people and James will come around. Or you could go to Andromeda and her husband. If you wanted to stay with family.”

“I could really stay with you?”

“Of course. I will never abandon you again. I’m so sorry for leaving you alone in that place. If you hadn’t come to me…”

“But I did. And you didn’t abandon me. You needed to leave. They would have killed you if you hadn’t. And I could have come when you asked me to come with you. I was just too afraid to leave at that point. But now staying there is more terrifying than leaving them behind.” 

Sirius gently stroked his cheek. “You are brave, Reggie. There is no shame of being afraid. I was constantly terrified when I was at that place. Especially after I was sorted into Gryffindor.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Now, let’s figure out a way to smuggle you back under the students without anybody noticing.”

After Regulus gave a nod, Sirius removed the silencing charm and turned to face the others.

“Regulus can no longer stay at the Black estate. It is too dangerous for him now. But all of this needs to stay under the radar. The most dangerous Slytherins are mostly already out of school or in our year but I don’t want them catching wind of the situation before it is absolutely unavoidable. Which will be at the end of the year when he won’t be going back to that place.”

He met all of his friend’s eyes, his gaze steely. They accepted this. Bless them. For now, there would be no questions. He knew there would be a whole load of them later but they understood that now was not the time.

McGonagall looked a little confused but accepted his statement as well.

“We need to figure out a way to bring Reggie back outside without anybody knowing where he was.”

“Well that shouldn’t be a problem,” James stated. “We’re the Marauders after all.”

Sirius looked over at Remus. He had that look on his face. He was scheming. Sirius adored that look. How had he landed such a fucking adorable boyfriend? He didn’t know but he was thanking all his lucky stars.

Remus was nodding slowly. “Ok. I have an idea. Professor, will you do me a favour and tell the others they can stop looking for Regulus? He will be back among the students in exactly twenty-five minutes.” 

She shot him a contemplative look but nodded. “Do I want to know how?”

Remus shrugged. “It won’t be anything to extreme. At least not for our standards. Just enough to cause a distraction. You might want to tell Madame Pomfrey to prepare for some patients.” At the sharp look McGonagall sent him he quickly added: “They won’t be hurt. They might need to get their skin colour or hair changed back to their original colour though.”

“When will it begin?” she sighed.

“In ten minutes. In the charms corridor.”

She nodded and exited the room muttering something under her breath they couldn’t make out.

Remus went over to his trunk, pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. Then he pointed his wand at it. The note folded itself into a paper aeroplane and zoomed out of their dorm. 

Then he looked at Regulus and appraised his clothing. “Hm. Well that won’t do.” He performed some spell silently and a pair of Slytherin robes appeared.

“Do I even want to know why you guys have Slytherin robes on hand?” Regulus muttered to Sirius.

“Probably not. It’s better not to ask about these things.”

Regulus nodded his understanding. 

Remus held the robes out to Regulus. “Alright change into these. If we want to pull this off, we need to stick to the schedule.”

“Right and what exactly is it that you have planned, Moony?” James asked.

Remus blinked, then seemed to realise that he had in fact not told them. “Oh, right. So, you know that prank that you had planned for Saint Patrick’s Day?”

“The one you said was stupid and wouldn’t work?” Peter wanted to know.

“Yes, that one. And it wouldn’t have worked the way you had it planned. Besides your spells were wrong. I improved and altered them. Now they will work.”

James was practically vibrating with excitement. “Don’t leave us hanging. What has your beautiful mind concocted?”

“Once Regulus has finished changing,” he gestured to Sirius’ bed where Regulus was currently changing behind the curtains. “I will take him out through a secret passage under the cloak. While I’m taking care of that, James and Sirius will pull off the prank. Be as obnoxious as possible. I’m sure that won’t be hard. Peter, you will be acting as a lookout. Well a supposed look out. I already told McGonagall where it was going to happen. But for appearances, you will be positioned at the end of the charms corridor.”

“So far it sounds fun. But I still don’t get how this is going to help,” James interjected. 

Just then a paper aeroplane flew into their dorm. Remus read the message and gave a pleased smile.

“It would be rather strange if I just appeared alone somewhere else while all of you were pulling off a prank. So, I decided to recruit someone. Lily will meet me in the third floor and we’ll do our rounds. You know since we are supposed to do those every once in a while. While we are walking, I’ll deposit Regulus at the library. You read a lot so it won’t be that much of a surprise if some of your housemates stumble upon you in one of the more private areas there.” The latter was directed at Regulus who had emerged from behind the curtains.

“How do you know they’ll find me?”

Remus smirked. “A few of your fellow Slytherins always visit this one particular part of the library on Saturday mornings at the same time each week. So, if we want to get you there before they do, we need to get moving soon.”

Regulus turned to Sirius: “Is this another one of those things I probably won’t want the answer to?”

Sirius nodded, trying very hard not to let his grin show. 

Regulus still looked a little uncertain. “What am I supposed to do when they find me?”

“All you need to do is pretend that you were reading all night and lost track of time. It’ll be believable, you are quite studious after all,” Remus explained.

Before Regulus could answer, Sirius cut in: “Don’t be so unsure of yourself. We Blacks are phenomenal actors. You just have to put the snobbish mask on and they won’t question you. Ah ah ah,” Sirius said when Reggie made to interject, “I know for a fact that you can pull it off. If we couldn’t pretend, we’d both be dead by now. C’mon Reg, I know you can do this.”

Regulus sighed. “Fine. I’ll go along with this. Let’s just hope they’ll buy it.”

“Oh, they will.” Then he turned to Remus: “Ok teach us the altered spell, Moons.”

  


Exactly ten minutes later, Sirius spotted Regulus being escorted along the Charms corridor, the Slytherins looked relaxed. That was until they caught sight of the chaos that was currently ensuing in this particular part of the castle.

Every student was radiating different colours, spells were flying everywhere and laughter and shrieks filled the air.

Originally, they had planned to turn everyone green for Saint Patrick’s Day. But this was a much better solution.

The idea had been inspired by the Muggle festival of colour, where they threw coloured powder at each other. Sirius didn’t quite understand why but it looked fun.

The corridor and all the students were covered in colour. Some student’s hair or skin had also changed. A different spell than the one that created the powder and not permanent. The result was a multicoloured mess. It was brilliant.

Sirius looked down at himself. He was covered in every colour of the rainbow. He grinned. He caught James’ eye and they both burst into another bout of laughter.

McGonagall and some of the other teachers had also entered the frenzy though they didn’t look to bothered with ending it. This was a rather harmless prank after all.

Just then Remus and Lily turned the corner and observed the scene in front of them. Sirius could see the satisfied twitch of Remus’ lips.

Everything was going according to plan. Regulus was found, Sirius and his friends had been nowhere near him at the time and now everybody was so distracted they wouldn’t even remember that Regulus had been missing for a short time.

James, ever the idiot, fired a spell at Lily, covering her in emerald green powder. Lily slowly looked down at her clothes and then back up at James. There was murder in her eyes.

“Run,” Sirius suggested helpfully.

James tore off down the corridor, Lily hot on his heals.

“At least it matches your eyes,” was the last thing they heard James yelling before he was out of earshot.

He looked over at Remus who was already staring at him. He was smiling in the way that made Sirius’ knees go weak.

It distracted him so much he didn’t notice Remus’ wand was pointing at him until the spell hit and he was engulfed in a colourful cloud of powder. 

Gods he loved that brilliant bastard.

**Author's Note:**

> I like Regulus and so he lives in my story.  
> Also Peter won't betray the Potter's. It doesn't really have anything to do with this story but I still wanted to mention it.


End file.
